The Middle East

The sultanate’s insurance industry has grown rapidly in recent years. According to data from the Capital Market Authority (CMA), which is charged with regulating the sector, during the period 2007-13 the sector posted a compound annual growth rate of 14% in terms of gross written premiums (GWPs). Oman was home to the second-fastest growing insurance sector in the GCC...

Omantel is the largest telecoms operator in Oman, with a total subscriber base of 4.17m and market share of 59% as of June 2014. The company had a monopoly over the Omani telecoms sector until 2005, when Ooredoo Oman (then Nawras) came into the market as the second operator to offer mobile and fixed services.

Oman Cables is one of the largest makers of power cables, building wires, instrumentation cables and overhead transmission line conductors in the GCC region. The company is intrinsically tied to growing demand for electricity in Oman, which is expected to increase by 10% per annum over the next several years, thereby boosting the local demand for cables as well. Oman...

Capital markets in Oman have expanded considerably over the course of 2013 and 2014, driven by strong fundamentals, increasing economic diversification, and prudent market regulation and oversight. In the first nine months of 2014 market capitalisation of the Muscat Securities Market (MSM), Oman’s stock exchange, increased by 16% after growing 21.4% in 2013, according to...

The capital markets sector is expected to play a key role in the government’s ongoing push to encourage the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A focus of the government’s plans since the mid-2000s, SMEs are seen as integral to Oman’s future for a variety of reasons. They drive private sector growth, much of it in the non-oil economy, and create...